The Carleton Ravens football team represents Carleton University, which is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The Ravens play U Sports football in the Ontario University Athletics conference. The Ravens football program started in 1945 and was continuously in operation until 1998 when the program was disbanded. The football program was brought back to the university in 2011 and began play in 2013.Carleton football veteran celebrates team's revival Ottawa Citizen The football team has won one conference championship, winning the Dunsmore Cup in 1985 while playing in the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference.
History
Historically, the Ravens football team first began play just after the Second World War in 1945 and was in continuous operation until the program was dropped in 1998. While the team had some success in the mid-1980s, poor performances and a plan by the Carleton Athletic department to invest more funds in other sports led to the sport being cut after the 1998 season. In their history, the Ravens won one Dunsmore Cup conference championship in 1985, but lost in the following Western Bowl to the Calgary Dinos 56 to 14.
Beginnings (1945-1949) The Originals, the first Carleton College football team, played its first organized game on a rainy October day in 1945. The Second World War had just ended and 36 war veterans, turned students, lined up to face their opponents Macdonald College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Que. Though the Carleton College team was bigger and more experienced, Macdonald took home the win (15-0). Carleton College, established in 1942, did not have the facilities or finances for academics, let alone a football team. Citizens of Ottawa rallied to help out the newborn squad. W.D.T. Atkinson allowed the team to practice at Glebe Collegiate, the school where he was principal. Charlie Kerr, one of the players, found the team matching brown and orange hockey jerseys to wear and the Strathcona junior team donated equipment. Tiny Hermann, a former Rough Rider star, agreed to volunteer his time as head coach. Joe Scanlon, author of History of Football at Carleton, lists these fine gentlemen as the members of the Originals:
Bob Forbes, Frank MacIntyre, Mel Carson, Bill O'Neill, Johnny Urquhart, Bill Rankin, Charlie Kerr, Don Sim, Johnny Moore, Charlie Charlebois, Donald McGregor, Merton Keith Salisbury, Wayne Dunphy, Ross Cavey, Al Holtby, Johnny Chown, Jim McNee, Lyall Graham, Bernard Garand, Harold Barnhart, Jim McKnight, Chuck Winters, Peter Ayearst, Russ Brown, Rock Robillard, Ted Graves, Robert Forbes, John Bell, Bill Morgan, Doug Good, Dave Morgan, Al Holley, J W York, Ted Ricker, Peter McDougal and Johnny Shore. The two managers were Jim Hanna and Don Anderson.
The Originals ended their first season with one win, two losses and a tie. The "Ravens" name came from the Carleton College student newspaper staff in 1948, when they started using that moniker with no explanation. It may have had something to do with the team's raven-like black uniform. By 1946, Carleton College was located on First Avenue, with the Ravens occupying a 12'x15' locker room in the basement. The dressing room was in the attic and practices were held in a small, poorly-lit yard behind the school. In 1947, the team entered the intermediate league with St. Patrick's College, the University of Ottawa and Queen's University. It was in this newly-formed league that the long rivalry between the University of Ottawa and Carleton College began, and the Ravens became an integral part of university life. Fans would rally and march from First Avenue to Lansdowne Park for home games and pile onto buses for the away games. The first decade of Ravens football history endured hardships such as under-funding, changes in leadership and, as veterans graduated, depleting numbers.
Trying times and turnaround (1950-1959*) The early 1950s were trying years for the Ravens. The low enrolment and roster numbers left Coach Arnie McWatters with a "patchwork" team. High scoring losses against teams in the newly formed Ottawa-St. Lawrence Conference left the Ravens low on morale. Ravens football came to a grinding halt, with no inter-varsity team in the 1951 season after the loss of college grant money. The seemingly bleak future of the Ravens was brightened when the college revived the program in 1952. Norm Fenn, assistant coach and full-time director of Athletics, provided the first link between the college administration and the football team, and would prove vital in the years to come. The new team entered a league with Macdonald College, Bishop's University and St. Patrick's College. There was little carryover of players from the previous decade, but the new players were ready and willing pupils.
The Ravens were on their way to a significant turnaround in 1953, with their first winning season. The new head coach, Bill Stanton, led the team to winning games against Loyola (now Concordia University) and McGill. For the first time, in 1954, Carleton was in the running for a league title. They ended the season in a tie for second place with the Royal Military College (RMC), and won the first Panda game in 1955. This season was one of the best in Ravens' history, with Carleton holding first in the league until a final game with the University of Ottawa (U of 0). However, the success would be shortlived1955 to 1959 were not to be as successful as the years before. The competition grew with the establishment of the Ontario Intercollegiate Football League, with the inclusion of the University of Ottawa, RMC, McMaster University, University of Waterloo and the Ontario Agricultural and Veterinary College at Guelph (now University of Guelph).
(*)Carleton football suspended operations for one year in 1951 due to financial constraints and began play again in 1952.
Coach Keith Harris (1960-1969) Coach Keith Harris arrived for the start of the 1959 season, bringing needed leadership and routine to the Ravens squad. He began the Monday night "horror movie" tradition where films of previous games were picked apart and analyzed. Recruitment strategies by Harris picked young men from the registration lines in September. In the 1960s, they also saw the first football training camps, where tactical knowledge and skills, along with kinship, were developed. The players did odd jobs on campus to earn room and board in the new campus fieldhouse at the newly opened Rideau Campus. Harris was also the assistant director of Athletics while Norm Fenn, assistant coach, filled the position of director.
The results of these changes began to surface as early as the 1960 season, when the Ravens beat RMC twice in a row and non-winning games had small point spreads. For the first time in five years, no team shut the Ravens out, and player retention from year-to-year was on the rise. In 1962, Carleton fought its way to the top of the Ottawa-St. Lawrence conference, ready to take the conference title. Carleton challenged the first-place team in the conference: the McMaster Marauders. Although both morale and skill were at an all-time high, the McMaster team won, putting Carleton in second place. The 1963 season was also very successful, and 1964 brought Pedro the Panda back to Carleton after an eight-year stay with the Gee-Gees. Players like Bob Amer, Dave Dalton and Gord Pranschke set league records. These three players, along with Murray Thrift, Larry Matheson and Earl Hammond, made the 1965 league all-star game. A unique challenge was presented to Carleton's football Ravens in 1967, when St. Patrick's College, one of Carleton's frequent opponents, was incorporated into Carleton University. The two very separate football teams were to become one squad. By 1968, the integrated Ravens team earned a second-place finish and sixth-place nationally. The 1960s were truly the Ravens' first Golden Age.
Tougher competition (1970-1979) The Ravens football club moved from the mediocre Central Canada Intercollegiate Conference (CCIC) into the highly-competitive Ontario University Athletic Association (OUAA) in 1971. This league contained the nationally ranked University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Queen's University Golden Gaels. Carleton's first game in the OUAA was against the Varsity Blues. Though they were the underdogs, the Ravens upset the Blues with an impressive 12-3 win. One of the highlights of the 1971 season was the Panda Game, when the number one team in the nation, the Gee-Gees, was upset by the Ravens 28-14. All in all, the 1971 season was an impressive debut in the OUAA.
The 1972 highlights included a phenomenal game against Waterloo, where the offence finally proved themselves with a 35-6 score. The Ravens seemed to score every time they touched the ball. After shattering 21 team records, the Ravens were proud going into the 1974 season. The Ravens struggled, but secured a 10th-place national ranking, obtaining a playoff spot in the OUAA eastern division. Though the Ravens didn't take the Panda game or the playoff semi-final with Toronto, 1974 was a season where the Ravens commanded the respect of the OUAA.
1975 and 1976 were rough years for the team. Coach Kim McCuaig left to work full time with the Athletics Department and was replaced by Brian Kealey. These two seasons were, in fact, winless, but the 1977, 1978 and 1979 seasons got the attention of the league and eventually the entire nation! Pat Stoqua, a Ravens basketball star, joined the team in 1977 and was a key contributor to the defence strategy. A whopping 61-0 exhibition win against Royal Military College gave the Ravens the spirit and confidence needed to win against the Gee-Gees, in a tremendous show of defensive skills. This was the first time in six years that the Ravens had won against their eternal foe. The Ravens were legitimate contenders in the league and the 1977 Panda game was won 36-16 by Carleton.
The 1978 team won a title at the Ontario-Quebec pre-season jamboree, and was ready for anything. When Coach Kealey joined the team in 1975, he vowed that the team would reach the College Bowl by 1980, and this dream was finally looking attainable. The Panda Game was, yet again, the deciding game for a playoff spot. The Ravens repeated their stellar performance from the previous year and won 24-13.
1979 was considered the "Year of the Ravens". University football forecasters predicted that the team would finish first or second in the eastern division. The Carleton Ravens dream team went on to win three consecutive games, making them the only undefeated team in the conference and third in the country, the highest ranking ever obtained by a Ravens football team. The club began to receive media attention as the biggest potential national contender on the block. Queen's Golden Gaels became the team to beat to solidify the conference title. The Carleton Ravens lost the semifinal against the Queen's Golden Gaels 1979. The club went from division doormat to well-respected national contenders and a team to be reckoned with.
Successful years (1980-1989) The Ravens entered 1980 with a positive outlook and the determination to take it one game at a time, with Coach Kealey being backed by a completely new team of assistant coaches. Though the Birds lost the first three games of the year, the season was redeemed when the Ravens brought "Pedro the Panda" home with a 30-21 win over the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees.